The Daughters of Merlin

Grace woke up to feel Virgil holding her hand. Grace opened her eyes to see that Virgil was indeed holding her hand and sitting beside her bed, his head wrapped up in white cloth.

“Virgil?” She asked quietly, squeezing his hand.

Virgil looked over at her quickly, his eyes widening. “Angel, you’re awake!” Virgil leaned down and he kissed her passionately. “I’m so glad you’re okay.”

The door to the room slammed against the wall a few moments later, causing both Virgil and Grace to look over as Zana came running into the room.

“What in Creator’s name were you doing out there by yourself?! If it weren’t for Blue and Raven we probably wouldn’t even have known you were gone!” Zana shouted, her eyes full of worry and a hint of anger.

Grace looked at her stomach, placing her hands on top of it worriedly. “The baby?”

“Is fine. Zana checked on them as soon as she finished killing Morgana.” Virgil assured her.

Grace looked at Zana. “You killed her?”

“Yes. Dad had a spell that I could use to kill her. She’s dead. I watched her body burn myself.” Zana answered. “Now what were you doing out in the woods by yourself?”

“Looking for you.” Grace replied. “You weren’t in the house and I saw a light in the forest. I thought it was you.”

Virgil sighed, looking down at the ground sadly. “I’m sorry, Angel. It’s my fault.”

“No, it’s not. I shouldn’t have left her alone.” Zana said, placing her hand on his shoulder. “Besides, it’s in the past. All that matters now is that Morgana and Mordred are dead and Grace is safe. We’re all safe.”

A week later, Zana, Virgil, and Grace were all having dinner at the castle.

“Zana, I’ve been worried about the baby.” Grace said.

“I told you, Snowflake, they’re fine.” Zana assured her. “And I’m not lying about this to protect you. They really are.”

Grace bit her lip. The dreams that she had been having recently told her otherwise, but she decided not to argue about those for now.

“It’s not that. Morgana found a way to come back before. Lilith possessed her daughter’s body. I don’t want my children to suffer the same fate that we have.” Grace replied.

Zana sighed. She looked over at Virgil.

“She does have a point.” Virgil agreed, before looking at Grace. “But there’s no way we can prevent that.”

“Yes there is. We can change everyone’s memories of me. Papa has a spell for it, I know he does. We can make everyone think that I’m just a regular girl who was born with a birth defect or something like that. No one will remember or know that I’m Merlin and Freya’s daughter. We could make them think that Merlin adopted me or that Zana and I were just really close friends. Anything but the truth.” Grace explained, looking over at Zana, pleading with her.

Zana sighed again. “Alright, I can do that. But it’s going to take me a few days followed by a few weeks’ nap. Once it’s done though it can’t be reversed.”

“Then do it. As long as you can without killing yourself.” Grace replied, nodding.

“There’s very little that can.” Zana responded with a smile.

Grace let loose another scream, gripping the sheets in her hands, the room temperature already well below zero degrees, despite the big fire going in the fireplace. Grace had been in labor for six hours at this point, and her child was finally ready to be born.

Only Zana was in the room so they could keep up the ruse that Grace was just another regular mortal, along with the fact that Grace would most likely accidentally kill a non-magical mortal had they been in the room. Virgil was waiting outside the door because of this.

“Alright, I think I see the head.” Zana said, glancing up at Grace. “Push!”

Grace tightened her grip on the sheets, tilting her head back as her whole body tensed up as she did as Zana had said. It took Grace three tries before her screams were replaced by the crying of a baby.

Zana stared at the crying baby she held in her hands in wonder. “It’s a girl.”

The door to the room burst open as Virgil ran inside. He glanced over at Grace who gave him a weary smile. He then went over to Zana, peering at his newborn daughter. Zana handed the child to Virgil, conjuring a knife out of nowhere to then cut off the umbilical cord.

“I’ll be back, Angel.” Virgil told Grace before leaving the room once again to go give the child to Anna who would then clean and dress the new princess.

Zana walked over to Grace. “How are you feeling?”

Grace chuckled, humorlessly laughing, closing her eyes. “Like I ju-” Grace was cut short as she groaned in pain again.

Zana furrowed her brows in confusion and worry. “What’s wrong?”

“I don’t know!” Grace shouted.

Zana pushed Grace’s dress up so she could lay her hands flat on Grace’s stomach, her eyes glowing as she did so. All of a sudden, Zana gasped, her eyes going back to normal as they widened.

“I heard Grace shout. What’s going on?” Virgil asked, running back into the room.

“There’s another child! It’s turned the wrong way.” Zana said, worriedly. She placed her hand on Grace’s forehead, casting a sleeping spell over her, making Grace fall unconscious.

“What did you do? I thought you said we were having one child!” Virgil shouted, rushing over to his wife’s side.

“She’s fine; just sleeping. And last time I checked there was only one child! But now there’s another baby in there but I don’t think it’s alive. I don’t want Grace to be awake to see it. Besides, I’m going to have to teleport it out.” Zana sighed.

“How do you expect to do that?” Virgil looked at her incredulously.

“You’ll have to catch it. Get ready.” Zana said, not leaving any room for an argument.

Virgil came to stand at the end of the bed with his arms held out. “Ok.”

“Three . . . Two . . . One!” Zana uttered the transportation spell, her eyes glowing as she did so, gritting her teeth together in concentration.

As soon as Zana finished the spell, Virgil felt the weight of what, at first glance, appeared to be a child.

Zana quickly looked over at Virgil, though before she could get a good look at the baby Virgil dropped it, a hollow thunk sounding as it hit the floor, the King staring in horror down at it.

“What is it?” Zana asked, rushing to the end of the bed to see.

The baby itself, at least in the way it’s head, torso, arms, and legs were shaped, were that of a human. But regular human babies don’t have horns protruding from their foreheads at odd angles, or torn up wings protruding from its shoulder blades. The child’s eyes were open, revealing the sclera to be black and the iris to be blood red. It’s mouth was open in a silent scream, revealing a mouthful of tiny white fangs. It’s skin was also the same color as ash, a shade no regular human baby would be born with. The worst of it was the fact that the creature’s right arm was it’s leg which was twisted backward at the elbow, the fingers all screwed up, and it’s right leg was it’s arm, which was also bent at odd angles.

Zana was only able to look at the creature for a few seconds before she had to run out to the balcony, leaning over the railing, and proceeded to throw up her supper.

This was able to give Virgil enough strength to look away from the creature and over at Zana. After the mage was done throwing up, though she kept her hand over her mouth, Zana came over to the child and threw a sheet over it, covering it up.

“What was that?” Virgil asked, his voice shaking as he saw his own fear reflected in his sister-in-law’s eyes.

"That would be the last remnant of Morgana.” Zana answered. “Pick it up with the blanket and bring it to the balcony.”

Hesitantly, Virgil did as she said. He made sure not to touch the creature’s bare skin as he rolled it over onto the blanket, wrapping it up in it, using the blanket as a makeshift bag. He then carried it out to the balcony, setting it down in the middle.

As soon as Virgil had set it down, Zana threw a purple and green fireball at it, making it burst into flames instantly. The two watched as the already deceased creature burned.

“Not one word of this to Grace.” Zana said.

“What do we say when you wake her up?”

“She passed out after giving birth to the girl.”

Virgil nodded, letting the Mage know that he understood.

“We’ll let her sleep for now. I’m going to . . . Wash up.” Zana said once there was nothing but ashes which the wind quickly blew away.